Light Pollution - Blog Posts
Turn Out the Lights
dcxdp fic idea
Danny Fenton is an environmentalist. Not because of Sam or Undergrowth or anything like that.
but because light pollution and smog block out the stars.
and he misses the stars.
When he was a kid he remembers looking up at the sky and being able to see the Milky Way with his naked eye from his own rooftop. By the time he left Amity he had to drive an hour outside the city limits to see even half that with all the sky glow.
And it was only getting worse. News was that even from the ISS Earth's light pollution problem was starting to interfere with their work. In 20 years would there even be a night sky anymore? When he died for real would his body be able to be laid out under them like he always imagined?
However bad Amity had been when he left, Metropolis was worse. While there wasn't the smog problem that their sister city Gotham had-all the street lights still had the place looking like noon in the Sahara around the clock.
So he studied. Got his Master's in areospace engeneering and then his PhD in environmental sciences. It was the hardest thing he had ever done and he defeated an evil tyrant before finishing puberty.
And now he was pounding on doors and camping out on sidewalks to tell people about the problem and get signatures to try and get a city ordinance passed. He was at every town hall, every HOA meeting. He sent letters and emails and made phone calls. He raised money for billboards and applied to grants for lower lumen lightbulbs.
(He may or may not then use his powers to replace burnt out bulbs around the city and install shielding on street lamps as he could)
It was on one of these escapades that he first ran into Superman. Who thought he was a super villiain or something. Danny shoved a flyer at him saying "he was just trying to help" before vanishing.
Later, one Clark Kent would be seen stopping to talk to a young environmentalist handing out flyers and asking for signatures on the sidewalk.
If asked the young man would claim he assumed the city was finally doing something about the lights.
Clark began to do his own research and what he found went far beyond no longer being able to see the stars from Earth (which he admit hurt, time was he could even see his old solar system). but the physical and pychological damage these artifical lights were doing was awful. Increased breast cancer risk? worsening bipolar and depression symptoms? diabetes? parkinsons? and that was just the effect on humans! the effects on wildlife were just as bad, if not worse.
And he thought lead pipes were bad.
It wasn't a front page story. Not yet at any rate. But there was a story here. And he felt obligated to be the one to share it. For that little boy back on the farm taking comfort in the night sky when he felt alone and missed his people. And for that guy with desperation in his eyes passing out flyers and begging for someone to listen like his life depended on it.
In the event of a mass power cut, how long would it take for the stars to become visible?
Would it be instantaneous? Would all the lights go out and you look up and there's the milky way? Or would it be slow? Would the sky stay dark as the light pollution caught in the clouds slowly bleeds away to reveal the stars?
(how fast would they disappear? To look up at the vastness of the heavens and the fullness of the universe and with final flick of a switch they disappear and you're surrounded by the artificial glow of streetlights.)
Light Pollution
Staring at the dark ceiling
I have it memorized
If only the glow in the dark stars were real constellations
I’d know my way around them by now
I’m a night owl; a nocturnal creature dealing
A toilet flushing down the hall
Brings me back to my punishment of being under aged
Being owned by your parents
They call it custody
I call it a prison of musty walls
I'm allergic to the stuffy skeleton of this house
Keeping the keys quiet so I don’t get in trouble
Deep trouble
For something so little
In comparison of the big picture and the hole in my blouse
I need to get away from the light pollution
So I can shine brighter than my cousins
Two stars, and I get compared to them
It’s inevitable because I'm trapped being related
Because I must be part of the salty solution
I must get away from the people asking me why I'm not shining,
While my surface is burning hotter than magma
Waiting to explode
Letting the pressure you put in me develop,
Into diamonds I will wear while going out with a special one dining
Letting some steam off in a perfect sun storm
I'm fast and burn hard
But I wait like a cat about to pounce
You won’t see it coming before you're in a ring of flames
You can’t freeze my flames out, with your heart so cold you still can’t even make the temperature go from hot to warm
Stargazing is a difficult task, especially under adverse weather conditions, but human beings have also made it much harder for ourselves with all these pesky electrical lights and such. Light pollution affects vast swathes of inhabited land, but the introduction of Dark Sky Reserves helps to improve observational conditions for amateur and professional astronomers. Today, you get to hear more about Dark Sky Reserves as well as the Bortle Scale, which is used to judge the amount of light pollution affecting stargazing within an area.
Below the cut are my sources, music credits, a vocab list, and the transcript of this episode. Suggest what you think I should research next by messaging me here, tweeting at me at @HDandtheVoid, or asking me to my face if you know me. Please subscribe on iTunes, rate it and maybe review it, and tell friends if you think they’d like to hear it!
(My thoughts on the next episode are space race history, the transit of Venus, Shen Kuo, or Walter Baade. The next episode will be up on December 18th.)
Glossary
airglow - a very faint, bluish, naturally occurring glow that hangs around the horizon on Earth, usually within about 15 degrees of the horizon line.
Bortle Scale - an objective scale to measure the clarity and effect of light pollution on a night’s stargazing. Black and grey zones are the best for stargazing, blue is for rural skies, green and yellow are the rural/suburban transition zone, orange is the suburban sky, red is bright suburbia, and white is for cities and inner cities.
deep-sky object - any cosmological object that isn’t individual stars or something from our Solar System. It’s a classification that includes nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters, and it has its roots in amateur astronomy.
ecliptic - the path of the Sun across the sky over the course of a year.
gegenschein - a faint brightening in the night sky directly opposite the Sun. Astronomers think it’s caused by the reflection of sunlight off of dust ejected by comets or resulting from asteroid destruction.
light pollution - the excessive, misdirected, or intrusive use of artificial, human-made lighting. There are several major types of light pollution:
glare - when too-bright and poorly directed lights blind people.
light trespass - when neighboring lights are so bright that their light spills over and illuminates others’ property.
overillumination - when excessive lights are used in a small area.
skyglow - the visible glow caused by light scattering and reflecting off of the droplets of atmospheric molecules.
lumen - a measurement of a light’s brightness.
magnitude - the measurement of a star’s brightness as seen from Earth. The brighter it is, the lower its magnitude value. Ex. the Sun has an apparent magnitude of -27.
Messier object - a deep-sky object included on a list of 103-110 deep-sky objects made by Charles Messier and his colleagues in the 18th century in an attempt to prevent fuzzy, bright objects from being confused with comets.
zodiacal light - a faint brightening in the night sky along the ecliptic that results from sunlight scattered forward off dust in the direction of the Sun.
Transcript
Sources
Sodium lamp light pollution reduction effects via Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition
Types of light pollution via the British Astronomical Association’s Campaign for Dark Skies, 2009
Light pollution via Sky and Telescope, Dec 2008
The World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness via the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute
Lumens and watts via Lowes
UNESCO World Heritage Site list
Invention of the light bulb via SPS Industrial
Lightbulb components via CIO
Walter Baade bio via the Royal Astronomy Society of Canada
International Dark-Sky Association
“An IDA International Dark Sky Reserve is a public or private land possessing an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and nocturnal environment that is specifically protected for its scientific, natural, educational, cultural, heritage and/or public enjoyment. Reserves consist of a core area meeting minimum criteria for sky quality and natural darkness, and a peripheral area that supports dark sky preservation in the core. Reserves are formed through a partnership of multiple land managers who have recognized the value of the natural nighttime environment through regulations and long-term planning.”
“The core area must provide an exceptional dark sky resource, relative to the communities and cities that surround it, where the night sky brightness is routinely equal to or darker than 20 magnitudes per square arc second.”
John Bortle’s article on his magnitude scale via Sky and Telescope, July 2006
“I have created a nine-level scale. It is based on nearly 50 years of observing experience. I hope it will prove both enlightening and useful to observers — though it may stun or even horrify some! Should it come into wide use, it would provide a consistent standard for comparing observations with light pollution.”
John E. Bortle receives the Leslie C. Peltier Award in 2013 via the Astronomical Society
Bortle dark sky scale via Big Sky Astronomy Club
Bortle dark sky scale via LSU
Gegenschein via Sky and Telescope, Oct 2015
Messier List via Fred Espenak’s website, Astropixels
Caldwell List via Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS)
Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity
Filler Music: ‘New Son/Burnt Iron’ by Trampled by Turtles off their album Palomino
Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught
Joshua Tree at Night by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Joshua Tree National Park at night, with the Milky Way above. Canon 1Dx, Nikon 14-24mm lens, f 2.8, 20 sec, 14 mm, ISO 6400. This is an attempt to capture the feel of Joshua Tree National Park at night, with the scattered rock formations and the scattered but exotic looking trees. There are 2 very small dim lights hidden in the rocks, and another on a small tripod about 40 meters off to my right at about 45 degrees. My intent is to light the scene enough to see well without making it "in your face" bright. The lighting does make the colors more interesting than the same non-lighted scene. The yellow-orange color is light pollution probably from the town of 29 Palms. This is a single exposure. Hope you enjoy! All comments are welcomed. Please join me at: Website Facebook Blog Twitter
Lake Mead Panorama by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is a panorama of Lake Mead between Arizona and Nevada, a man made lake created by the Hoover Dam. This was taken from Stewarts Point near The Valley of Fire State Park, and about a one hour drive from Las Vegas. I had made a trip to photograph the Valley of Fire Park but a Park Ranger stopped me and told me I could not photograph there at night without a permit, so it was on to "plan B". I drove to Lake Mead trying to salvage something from the night. This is a 15 photo panorama combined in Lightroom, taken with a Canon 1Dx and a Nikon 14-24 mm lens at f 2.8, 30 sec, 14 mm and ISO 6400. This is about a 240 degree panorama so the sides of the photo are looking in opposite directions. The light pollution on the right is Las Vegas about 60 miles (100 Km) away, and the light pollution on the left in Moapa Valley about 15 miles (25 Km) away. The streak in the sky is a plane with very bright lights (coming in to land at Las Vegas). It looks a bit like a comet and I thought it was a point of interest. The water level has dropped in recent years due to drought and the bank where I am standing used to be many meters below the water level. Pierreeau photographie suggested the light was a UFO. This is a very reasonable guess since I am pretty sure there are lots of aliens in Las Vegas disguised as Elvis. Hope you enjoy! All comments are welcomed. Please join me at: Website Facebook Blog
“THEY FLOODED THE SKY WITH LIGHT AND STOLE THE STARS FROM US” - Me on light pollution
Gotta make some art out of this…